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You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

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Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#31

Post by gnarbarian »

analog31 wrote: post #27
slededit wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The uncomfortable fact is other professions treat their employees like cogs (hiring booms then mass layoffs), or their customers like crap (ever wait an hour for your set time appointment at the doctor?). The determining factor is really the price of the professional. Software development is in a real interesting situation as its transitioning from a low status job to a high status one. As this progresses you'll see…

I can get an appointment with my doctor, quicker than I can get a programmer assigned to a task at my workplace. I go through fewer gatekeepers at the doctor's.

Because you're the client. You seeing your doctor will always make the doc more money.

To carry this metaphor a step further, you asking for help on a ticket is more like going to the emergency room. If your ticket is a tummy ache you're going to wait. If it's a gunshot wound to the chest you're going to have all the best staff on hand immediately to put out the fire.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#32

Post by sonnyblarney »

thinkingkong wrote: post #3

No youre managing a team of software engineers, one skill they have is writing. The product isnt the text. The product is the entire system designed to keep the text alive, functional, reasonably error free all in a relatively unpredictable environment. We definitely need to keep considering how other professions manage the unpredictable nature of their work so we can learn. Im just not sure this narrative suits that…

The whole product includes design, UI, UX, learning, documentation and a lot more than just what any software Engineers do.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#33

Post by sonnyblarney »

I prefer to think of them as carpenters.

Every carpentry job requires solving a lot of problems every day, and using a variety of skills.

But carpenters don't think of themselves as divas or creatives.

In most cases, it's not nearly so romantic.

There are objectives, roadmaps, client needs: it's just a job. Put on your hard hat, get your morning coffee and do it.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#34

Post by mdmnk »

jungler wrote: post #25
slededit wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The uncomfortable fact is other professions treat their employees like cogs (hiring booms then mass layoffs), or their customers like crap (ever wait an hour for your set time appointment at the doctor?). The determining factor is really the price of the professional. Software development is in a real interesting situation as its transitioning from a low status job to a high status one. As this progresses you'll see…

I would liken any status in software to superstardom in sports. If you're in demand for exactly the right thing, all the doors open. But if your real calling is something with no extant "pro league", you are viewed as a hobbyist without relevant skills. Knowing 6502 assembly was a pretty sweet skillset, back in the day.

obscure / outdated knowledge can pay off as well.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#35

Post by shanghaiaway »

ilaksh wrote: post #23

This article is a great example of the biggest problem with software development management: they often fundamentally do not understand what software engineering entails. You can tell that he has caught on to a few aspects in terms of requiring editing and creativity and not being able to plan everything ahead. But really he doesn't understand the full extent of what programming involves. If he did he would definitel…

Software developers cannot sit down and design a new type of spacecraft engine.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#36

Post by analog31 »

gnarbarian wrote: post #31
analog31 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can get an appointment with my doctor, quicker than I can get a programmer assigned to a task at my workplace. I go through fewer gatekeepers at the doctor's.

Because you're the client. You seeing your doctor will always make the doc more money. To carry this metaphor a step further, you asking for help on a ticket is more like going to the emergency room. If your ticket is a tummy ache you're going to wait. If it's a gunshot wound to the chest you're going to have all the best staff on hand immediately to put out the fire.

True. Another difference is that it's illegal for me to be my own doctor, but I can be my own programmer. ;-)

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#37

Post by lovich »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #35
ilaksh wrote: post #23

This article is a great example of the biggest problem with software development management: they often fundamentally do not understand what software engineering entails. You can tell that he has caught on to a few aspects in terms of requiring editing and creativity and not being able to plan everything ahead. But really he doesn't understand the full extent of what programming involves. If he did he would definitel…

Software developers cannot sit down and design a new type of spacecraft engine.

That metaphor seemed like it was trying to show equivalent complexity, not that the jobs were interchangeable.

Engineers on a spacecraft needing to know that at a certain temperature a material contracts which changes the friction coefficient it has and increases the heat generated until two moving parts melt, seems to have the same equivalence as knowing that at a certain rate of incoming messages your cache technology starts hitting a race condition where messages are double sent and now the downstream work is duplicated but not able to be correlated.

All of this is different from ambiguous wording in natural language, where the ambiguity might even be the intent.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#38

Post by ilaksh »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #35
ilaksh wrote: post #23

This article is a great example of the biggest problem with software development management: they often fundamentally do not understand what software engineering entails. You can tell that he has caught on to a few aspects in terms of requiring editing and creativity and not being able to plan everything ahead. But really he doesn't understand the full extent of what programming involves. If he did he would definitel…

Software developers cannot sit down and design a new type of spacecraft engine.

I was obviously not trying to suggest that.

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#39

Post by lsc »

jungler wrote: post #25
slededit wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The uncomfortable fact is other professions treat their employees like cogs (hiring booms then mass layoffs), or their customers like crap (ever wait an hour for your set time appointment at the doctor?). The determining factor is really the price of the professional. Software development is in a real interesting situation as its transitioning from a low status job to a high status one. As this progresses you'll see…

I would liken any status in software to superstardom in sports. If you're in demand for exactly the right thing, all the doors open. But if your real calling is something with no extant "pro league", you are viewed as a hobbyist without relevant skills. Knowing 6502 assembly was a pretty sweet skillset, back in the day.

This is not my experience of the tech industry?

I'm not sure I've had any job in the last twenty years where I met all the listed requirements.

My impression is that employers want some skill that it's sometimes possible to puzzle together from (but is rarely directly stated in any reasonable way) on the requirements list, then they want you to pass a poorly done faux IQ test.

Then there's a bunch of social stuff, which I don't really understand well enough to treat as anything but random noise. I mean, I can see that it's there and that it's not random, but I can't really see how to change it to my advantage.

Hiring is hard, and nobody, as far as I can tell, is any good at it. But being too specific about what skills they want is not a problem I've personally seen. (Not in the last 20 years in silicon valley, anyhow)

Re: You’re Not Managing a Team of Software Engineers, You’re Managing Writers

#40

Post by lsc »

analog31 wrote: post #36
gnarbarian wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you're the client. You seeing your doctor will always make the doc more money. To carry this metaphor a step further, you asking for help on a ticket is more like going to the emergency room. If your ticket is a tummy ache you're going to wait. If it's a gunshot wound to the chest you're going to have all the best staff on hand immediately to put out the fire.

True. Another difference is that it's illegal for me to be my own doctor, but I can be my own programmer. ;-)

Is it? I mean, practicing medicine on other people is illegal in the US, as I understand it; and you can't obtain certain drugs. But I think everything else the doctor does, you can do to yourself without fear of legal penalty?
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